Like many huge companies with legacy software, Microsoft neglects to fix bugs that impact the user experience. It’s difficult to guarantee your files will land where you want them, and despite a cross-notebook search feature, it’s also challenging to find and retrieve information. Poor searchability is another common complaint about OneNote. Worse, there’s no efficient way to transfer the notebook data from one Microsoft account to another. If you change Microsoft products, such as switching from Office 365 Home to Office 365 Business, your notebooks won’t transfer over. Upgrading your OneDrive plan for additional cloud storage space.Making a one-time purchase of Microsoft Office (Note: Your license is only good for one machine, so the cost for multiple machines may be prohibitive).Buying a Microsoft Office 2019 or Microsoft 365 subscription.At present, the only way to save files locally is to upgrade to the paid desktop version of OneNote by either:

While cloud-based tools are great for knowledge sharing and retrievability, they can create challenges for people and organizations who need to store files-in this case, notebooks-on devices they own and control.įor people who use OneNote extensively, either at home or at work, you could find yourself in a situation where you have hundreds of pages of information without a way to back it up. OneNote’s primary pitfall is that it’s mostly a cloud-based service.

You can’t save local files with the free version Organizational hierarchies aside, here are the most glaring limitations to notetaking in OneNote: Unfortunately, this is also where OneNote starts to falter: Finicky drag and drop functionality means you’re likely to put things where they don’t belong. It also boasts an impressive folder-based organization system that will feel familiar to anyone who’s ever used a Microsoft product. As a free standalone notetaking app, OneNote allows users to add multimedia elements like audio, video, and images to their notes. OneNote has many things working in its favor. To help you decide, this article highlights five free OneNote alternatives worth considering. But is it the best notetaking solution for their actual use case? They use Microsoft’s notetaking offering mostly because it’s free. Many people who use OneNote fall into the second camp. The second type uses whatever is most convenient-whether that means a native app like Apple’s Stickies or a nearby notepad. There are two types of notetakers: The first searches far and wide for the tool best suited to their individual needs.

Best evernote alternatives windows